Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help

Search Content

Version: 2019.2Applies to: Tableau Online, Tableau Server

Tableau Server and Tableau Online let you search content in two ways: via quick search or filtered search. The quick search field, at the top of the page, searches the entire site for matching content of any kind. Filtered search finds matches on the page you are viewing using search criteria specific to a content type, such as modified date for workbooks or connection type for data sources.

Both quick search and filtered search support attributes and operators that help you set the scope of the search. For example, you can limit a search to just titles of views or use operators like and and not.

Tip: Search is not case sensitive.

Quick search

Use the quick search field at the top of the page to find resources anywhere on the site. Quick search looks for matching text in resource names, owners, tags, captions, comments, and other information across the site. As you type, the top items that match your search text appear.

The search results show the number of page views and number of favorites for each piece of content. Hover over an item to see a tooltip that tells you more about it.

Note: Quick search restricts searches to published data sources only. To search on embedded data sources (workbooks that use a data connection only), use filtered search.

Filtered search

With filtered search, you can use a combination of search text and filters to find your content. Each content type has different filters available that are relevant to that content.

Note: If you are looking at a page with more than one type of content, you will see only the filter options that apply to all content types.

A filtered search applies to the content on the page you are viewing. It does not search content elsewhere on the site.

Select the content type you want to search and filter.

To search, enter your text in the top field of the Filters pane, then press the Enter key.

To filter, select the filter, and enter a term for the filter value or select from the available options.

To remove a filter, click Clear next to the filter name.

To remove all filters, click Clear All Filters at the top of the Filters pane.

Click the Filters button to collapse or open the Filters pane.

Search attributes

In addition to a general search, you can limit search on
Tableau Server and Tableau Online to a specific attribute such as name, workbook, data
source, and so on.

To include a search attribute, use the following syntax in the search box:

<attribute-name>:search-text (with no spaces on either side of the colon).

For example, to return
only items whose names contain the words sales or projections, type the following:

name:sales projections.

You can include multiple attributes to further limit a search.
For example, to find all dashboards that are owned by Smith,
type the following:

sheettype:dashboard owner:smith

A complete list of attributes is shown below.

This attribute...

Followed by...

Returns

name:

search term

Items with names that match the search term

title:

search term

Views with titles that match the search term

caption:

search term

Applies to views with captions.

owner:

user name

Items that are owned (published) by the specified
users.Note: Prior to 8.2, owners were listed as publishers in Tableau Server. The publisher search attribute is still supported and returns the same results as the owner attribute.

publisher:

user name

(See owner above)

project:

search term

Items that are part of a project whose name
matches the search term

comment:

search term

Views whose comments match the search term

tag:

search term

Items whose tags match the search term

field:

search term

Views with matching fields on the rows, columns,
level of detail, pages, or encoding shelves

sheettype:

view, dashboard, or story

Views that are of the matching sheet type

class:

type of data source (e.g., mysql)

Views and data sources that are associated
with the matching type of data source

dbname:

name of database

Published data sources that are associated
with the matching data source

nviews:

number

Workbooks that contain the specified number
of views

Note: Quick search restricts the searches of dbname to published data sources only. To search on embedded data sources (workbooks that use a data connection only), use filtered search.

Search operators

You can use and, or, not, and * with search phrases, including combining them with attributes, to build search expressions. For example, if you want to search for all
items that do not match a specific phrase, or to match one phrase or another but not necessarily both.

Operator

Definition

Examples

and

Returns items that match both search terms.

sales and marketing; pens and paper

or

Returns items that match either search term.

west or east; soccer and football

not

Excludes items that match the search term following this operator

not sheettype:dashboard

*

Acts as a substitute for any character or word following or as part of the search term. This operator can be used by itself or at the beginning or end of the search term. This operator is useful when you don’t know the exact term you are searching for.

dev* sales*

Special characters

If your search phrase includes spaces, punctuation, or reserved terms such as and, or, or not, enclose your search phrase in double quotation marks, for example: